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Customer brought in a Desktop computer that would not power on. The Tower was made by gateway and it had a upgraded video card inside it (pci express card.) The system was running 2 hard drives, DVD -rw, card reader, 2 fans, the motherboard and a pny nvidia card (required a 350 watt power supply.)

The cheaply manufactured Bestec power supply (oem in this system) was labeled a 300 watt, when the bestec label clearly states in small writing 285 watt.

However even a good quality 300 watt would be able to handle a card requiring 350 watt if its not fully loaded with devices (if all ports are not used.) This unit failed in 2 spots at the same time.

As seen in the pictures below the caps removed that were failed were cheaper 10volt 2200 uf and a 16volt 2200 uf, in the second picture compare to a better made 10volt 2200 uf and 16volt 2200 uf, you can see the size difference in the better part.

Bad Caps needing replacement

Bad Caps next to Replacements

The cheaper parts labeled OST were replaced with fresh Rubycon and Jackcon caps and Power supply is alive again.

The power supply was not returned to the system it was replaced with a 400 watt to avoid any further problems.

Posted in Service on January 22nd, 2011 by sky | | Comments Off on Cheap Capacitors fail under load

There are new outbreaks of Fake Anti-Virus attacks against twitter users with url shortening via google’s goo.gl url masking service. This is not a new form of attack at all its just done a different way. Url masking and tagging of different looking urls are very common ways to get you to a malicious or fraudulent site.

They way that the average user combats this type of activity is to just be cautious of any links from unknown sources and sometimes even known sources.

Things to remember if you get hit buy one of these fake AV attacks:
Don’t click anything that pops up, hit control+alt+delete and go to task manager and end all applications running
Delete your temporary internet filesRun Antivirus and spyware / malware scans (you can access some free spyware and malware scan tools online from our self help section in the support forum support.youritdepo.com )

Seek professional advise if you can not complete these tasks to ensure your systems health ( you can post a free question online in the support help section of the forum support.youritdepo.com )

There are “outbreaks” of this specific activity randomly though out the year, however this one was noted in technewsworld

See Technewsworld post:

The attackers send out tweets containing a link from the goo.gl shortened link service. This service and others like it compress long URLs into shorter ones, making them easier to fit into services like Twitter, which places a strict limit on the number of characters each tweet may contain. However, the services can also disguise the true nature of a link by hiding its actual URL.

Anyone clicking on the link is taken through two bounces to a website hosting the “Security Shield” fake antivirus program. Visitors are told they have suspicious applications running on their PCs and are urged to run a scan.

The scan shows the victim’s PC is infected, and the website then asks the user to download and pay for the Security Shield application.

We must fight back to help stop the potential scams online. It’s a battle that can be one only if we all do our part.

Below is an example of an ebay scam email, if you notice the first references “communigate” (see picture below) that’s a good clear sign it’s a scammer.

Then if you had checked the links they actually pointed to “http://klicklabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/…/ebri391.html” . Going there (not a good idea unless your protected) redirects you to “203.169.7.212/system/images/.,/signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPIdllSignInruhttpAFFwwwebaycom2F” . Just like most of these the 203.169.7.212 kicks back its apnic which means you can contact there isp but odds are its either forged or they don’t care.

Their goal was to make you go to this site and think you’re on ebay. You provide your login in info and they steal your account.

This is a complete “phishing” or scam attempt. So we have two options we can report the source ip from the email header (usually goes nowhere with the isp) or report the domain to their admin contact from there whois record. You can search online for whois domain look ups.

I provided the one below that resolved klicklabs.com to a private registration (common) and the contact was at a company called “domainsbyproxy.” There contact info was provided in the whois record (we can complain on the original host site.)

We can email or call them to notify them of the issues (they are ultimately responsible for getting in touch with the domain owner.)

I choose to call places like this and confront the registrars of the problems.

After a long hold to let them know of this issue “domains by proxy” offered the following statement.

“For us what we do is notate it, notify the customer, and allow them time to figure out what is going on. I am not sure what is going on but most times we just inform the customer. We can shut down there account if enough complaints are made. We will make sure they get notified of the problem”

We see these ads on line and on TV, but what is it. Most are just the same company selling a software package under different names. This “package” miss-represents the state of your computer when there is no problem so you buy the license and agree to there horendous terms. Its a simple marketing stratigy if you get a refund for the defunct “software” you still are on the hook with the other offers you agreed to. On the other hand if you don’t have a massage agreement they bundle alot of adware in it making it worse then before.

For reference you can see this post on yahoo news posted on january 4th about “finalyfast.com” another form of the company Ascentive.

The company whose late-night commercials promised to “make your computer run fast the way it’s supposed to,” will pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines and refunds to settle charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising.

In a settlement with the Washington State attorney general’s office, Ascentive, best known for its FinallyFast.com Web site, will pay $78,000 in penalties and offer $17.90 refunds to thousands of its Washington State customers who purchased the company’s PC cleanup products but did not use them.

At FinallyFast.com, PC users download software that tests their system for any performance bottlenecks and then offers to clean things up — for a fee. Consumers complained that the software didn’t work as advertised and that Ascentive racked up charges without properly notifying customers.

According to Assistant Attorney General Jake Bernstein, the company was peddling scareware — software that always found severe problems no matter what the condition of the computer being scanned. “They basically crossed the line in terms of advertising to consumers,” he said.

Bernstein’s office has a list of complaints against Ascentive, which echo consumer grievances that can be found online.

In court documents, the Washington attorney general’s office said that until March 2009, Ascentive’s free scan software came with adware and endless, annoying pop-up warnings that exaggerated problems on the computer. “The free scan categorizes everything that it identifies as an ‘error,'” the filings state.

Customers who wanted to cancel their subscriptions were forced though a cumbersome process and finally had to respond to an e-mail message before their accounts would actually be closed. The company has now agreed to fix the way it advertises and bills for its products, Bernstein said.

Ascentive sued Google in June 2009 after the search engine company began refusing to run advertisements for its products. It dropped the suit a month later, and Google is again running ads for Finallyfast.com.

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Archive for January, 2011

Customer brought in a Desktop computer that would not power on. The Tower was made by gateway and it had a upgraded video card inside it (pci express card.) The system was running 2 hard drives, DVD -rw, card reader, 2 fans, the motherboard and a pny nvidia card (required a 350 watt power supply.)

The cheaply manufactured Bestec power supply (oem in this system) was labeled a 300 watt, when the bestec label clearly states in small writing 285 watt.

However even a good quality 300 watt would be able to handle a card requiring 350 watt if its not fully loaded with devices (if all ports are not used.) This unit failed in 2 spots at the same time.

As seen in the pictures below the caps removed that were failed were cheaper 10volt 2200 uf and a 16volt 2200 uf, in the second picture compare to a better made 10volt 2200 uf and 16volt 2200 uf, you can see the size difference in the better part.

Bad Caps needing replacement

Bad Caps next to Replacements

The cheaper parts labeled OST were replaced with fresh Rubycon and Jackcon caps and Power supply is alive again.

The power supply was not returned to the system it was replaced with a 400 watt to avoid any further problems.

Posted in Service by sky | Comments Off on Cheap Capacitors fail under load

There are new outbreaks of Fake Anti-Virus attacks against twitter users with url shortening via google’s goo.gl url masking service. This is not a new form of attack at all its just done a different way. Url masking and tagging of different looking urls are very common ways to get you to a malicious or fraudulent site.

They way that the average user combats this type of activity is to just be cautious of any links from unknown sources and sometimes even known sources.

Things to remember if you get hit buy one of these fake AV attacks:
Don’t click anything that pops up, hit control+alt+delete and go to task manager and end all applications running
Delete your temporary internet filesRun Antivirus and spyware / malware scans (you can access some free spyware and malware scan tools online from our self help section in the support forum support.youritdepo.com )

Seek professional advise if you can not complete these tasks to ensure your systems health ( you can post a free question online in the support help section of the forum support.youritdepo.com )

There are “outbreaks” of this specific activity randomly though out the year, however this one was noted in technewsworld

See Technewsworld post:

The attackers send out tweets containing a link from the goo.gl shortened link service. This service and others like it compress long URLs into shorter ones, making them easier to fit into services like Twitter, which places a strict limit on the number of characters each tweet may contain. However, the services can also disguise the true nature of a link by hiding its actual URL.

Anyone clicking on the link is taken through two bounces to a website hosting the “Security Shield” fake antivirus program. Visitors are told they have suspicious applications running on their PCs and are urged to run a scan.

The scan shows the victim’s PC is infected, and the website then asks the user to download and pay for the Security Shield application.

We must fight back to help stop the potential scams online. It’s a battle that can be one only if we all do our part.

Below is an example of an ebay scam email, if you notice the first references “communigate” (see picture below) that’s a good clear sign it’s a scammer.

Then if you had checked the links they actually pointed to “http://klicklabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/…/ebri391.html” . Going there (not a good idea unless your protected) redirects you to “203.169.7.212/system/images/.,/signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPIdllSignInruhttpAFFwwwebaycom2F” . Just like most of these the 203.169.7.212 kicks back its apnic which means you can contact there isp but odds are its either forged or they don’t care.

Their goal was to make you go to this site and think you’re on ebay. You provide your login in info and they steal your account.

This is a complete “phishing” or scam attempt. So we have two options we can report the source ip from the email header (usually goes nowhere with the isp) or report the domain to their admin contact from there whois record. You can search online for whois domain look ups.

I provided the one below that resolved klicklabs.com to a private registration (common) and the contact was at a company called “domainsbyproxy.” There contact info was provided in the whois record (we can complain on the original host site.)

We can email or call them to notify them of the issues (they are ultimately responsible for getting in touch with the domain owner.)

I choose to call places like this and confront the registrars of the problems.

After a long hold to let them know of this issue “domains by proxy” offered the following statement.

“For us what we do is notate it, notify the customer, and allow them time to figure out what is going on. I am not sure what is going on but most times we just inform the customer. We can shut down there account if enough complaints are made. We will make sure they get notified of the problem”

We see these ads on line and on TV, but what is it. Most are just the same company selling a software package under different names. This “package” miss-represents the state of your computer when there is no problem so you buy the license and agree to there horendous terms. Its a simple marketing stratigy if you get a refund for the defunct “software” you still are on the hook with the other offers you agreed to. On the other hand if you don’t have a massage agreement they bundle alot of adware in it making it worse then before.

For reference you can see this post on yahoo news posted on january 4th about “finalyfast.com” another form of the company Ascentive.

The company whose late-night commercials promised to “make your computer run fast the way it’s supposed to,” will pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines and refunds to settle charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising.

In a settlement with the Washington State attorney general’s office, Ascentive, best known for its FinallyFast.com Web site, will pay $78,000 in penalties and offer $17.90 refunds to thousands of its Washington State customers who purchased the company’s PC cleanup products but did not use them.

At FinallyFast.com, PC users download software that tests their system for any performance bottlenecks and then offers to clean things up — for a fee. Consumers complained that the software didn’t work as advertised and that Ascentive racked up charges without properly notifying customers.

According to Assistant Attorney General Jake Bernstein, the company was peddling scareware — software that always found severe problems no matter what the condition of the computer being scanned. “They basically crossed the line in terms of advertising to consumers,” he said.

Bernstein’s office has a list of complaints against Ascentive, which echo consumer grievances that can be found online.

In court documents, the Washington attorney general’s office said that until March 2009, Ascentive’s free scan software came with adware and endless, annoying pop-up warnings that exaggerated problems on the computer. “The free scan categorizes everything that it identifies as an ‘error,'” the filings state.

Customers who wanted to cancel their subscriptions were forced though a cumbersome process and finally had to respond to an e-mail message before their accounts would actually be closed. The company has now agreed to fix the way it advertises and bills for its products, Bernstein said.

Ascentive sued Google in June 2009 after the search engine company began refusing to run advertisements for its products. It dropped the suit a month later, and Google is again running ads for Finallyfast.com.

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